Spiritual Leader: Jill Loving, Licensed Unity Teacher Ofce: 209-723-3427 Cell: 209-489-7533 Email: unitymerced@yahoo.com Website: unity.

ty.org Facebook: unitymerced We are part of: Unity World Wide Ministries & Silent Unity

Loving Letter
for May and June 2012
My head is spinning as I try to remember everything that needs to be done and planned for before Jim and I leave for a long Road trip through May and then we spend time with my sister as she and her husband visit NY, SF and LA. Organizing Unity and Camp for an absence of two months is a task! How did I ever get this busy when I retired? But as the spinning slowed at the end of the day I found myself thinking about travel in a more metaphysical way. Jesus traveled as he shared his message all the way from Nazareth to Jerusalem. About 80 odd miles as the crow ies but light years apart as far a culture was concerned. Nazareth was a back woodsy kind of place ..nothing good ever came out of Nazareth it says in one of the gospel. The distance between Nazareth and Jerusalem culturally was enormous like the difference between El Nido and San Francisco, no insult to El Nido, that's just how it is. But the message Jesus shared was just as revolutionary be it for different reasons in both places. Nazareth had never heard such a thing before. Jerusalem? Well it upset the established order!

Later Paul traveled further aeld and most bibles have maps showing the 'Journeys of Paul.' It was these travels that established Christianity as an idea to be reckoned with even if it was on a 'we can't beat em so join 'em' basis. Paul is the person who got the message out and laid the foundation for Christianity as a world religion. But where ever we travel, be it near or far, rest assure your message for good or not so good travels with you. So remember you are an ambassador where ever you go, how you speak, how you behave, how you cope with situations broadcast your 'message' more surely than any written tome ever could. You are our ambassadors for Unity attracting rather than promoting. So be prepared to let your light shine where ever you are and where ever you go as I will as I travel this next couple of months. Namaste, Goodahafeez, Shalom, peace love and blessings. See you all come July! Jill Loving, Licensed Unity Teacher and Spiritual Leader Board Chaplains Corner By: Dr. Judith Hartman There has been discussion of the noontime Tuesday Prayer Group and it occurred to me that we have
Page 1 of 8

been shy in making its intention known. Everyone is welcome! There are those who come to receive prayer and those who come to pray for another. All prayer requests made in writing or orally from the previous Sunday service are prayed for and then are forwarded to Unity Silent Prayer for 30 additional days of prayer. We meet in a designated prayer room in the ofce next door to the church. The number who attend varies from one or two to a full house. The space is intimate but we are assured that if we outgrow our prayer room space we can always move to a larger area. Sometimes words cannot express our deepest feelings and we might chose to just going into the silence. I do that often when I do my prayer work at home. If you have not experienced the silence I would like to recommend it. Let me use the words of another to describe it. Ernest Holmes wrote: In the metaphysical world, you frequently hear people speak of going into the silence. Naturally, one wonders what is meant by the silence, and if there is one thing we must avoid, it is confusion. All life is motion, or at least manifest life is in a state of vibration. But at the center of this vibration, there appears to be something which is motionless, something which itself does not move and yet from which all motion must come...We might state it this way: God does not move, but movement takes place within God. Going into the silence does not mean that either our mental or our physical

Chaplains Corner continued from page 1 reactions are obliterated, for if they were, we should pass into oblivion. We are not trying to discover how to be less ourselves, but how to be more ourselves. Jesus gave a good example of going into the silence when he told us that in prayer we should enter the closet and close the door. His language was symbolic. Entering the closet means withdrawing into ones own mind. For it is from ones own mind that the creativeness which one possesses emanates. It is evident that the closet is not a place of mental and spiritual oblivion, for a movement of consciousness still takes place. He who practices this movement of consciousness in the silence is practicing the inaction from which action ows. To Be still and know that I am God is to enter the sanctuary of ones own consciousness. From this center, the issues of life proceed. Here in our Secret Place of the Most High, the inner chamber of our own soul, are written the sacred words: I AM. It is from this consciousness, this I AM conceived in silent recognition, that Power ows. (Ernest Holmes) I invite you to commit to a pray practice that puts you in touch with Spirit. Make prayer requests, participate in Tuesday Pray group, or just where you are right now, go into the Silence. No one is outside the Mind of God. God loves you and so do I! And so it is! Every TUESDAY at 12 Noon Prayer Service in the Ofce Meditation Room. Please hold your Prayer Angels intention daily. An occasional note, card, or small gift is also appreciated. Use the Angel Drop Off Point (book shelves under the bulletin boards at the back of the sanctuary) or the churches address as your return address to preserve your anonymity!

The Youth Report

By: Sarah Anderson Happy Spring to everyone from the Youth Ed Program! Weve just had another successful month with our new teaching plan. Its been a great experience to teach the children this past month and discover the great spiritual messages contained within so many of our childrens books. We still have a volunteer opportunity open to teach 1 or 2 months out of the year. If interested, please talk to me, Sarah Anderson. It is a really great experience to teach the youth as it helps the teacher grow spiritually as well! See our tentative schedule below. Karen continues to work with our Uniteens and does a wonderful job with them! We are also so grateful for Whitney who is always there for any nursery age children that come as well! Thanks to all our volunteers. You are much appreciated!

TEACHING
Book of the Year: Discover the Power Within You by: Eric Butterworth Mays Book and Group of the Month: The Transcedent Life by: Jim Rosemergy Karen Damme is leading the book group which meets in the ofce. Junes Book and Group of the Month: The Faith Club by: Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner

Current 2012 Teaching Schedule

JUNE MAY Mattie Summer Break, stay with congregation

SERVICE
Hospitality Ministry meets 12 noon 1st Sunday of the month. Lamech and his crew will host the Mothers Day Brunch on Sunday, May 13th after service. The ladies will host the Fathers Day Brunch on Sunday, June 17th after service. Lead: Susan Benes Call: 209-777-7771 Email: smbpaints@aol.com. 2012 Birthday Cake Ministry: Need someone to bring cake for the month of September. Please sign-up now.

A Course in Miracles
Tuesdays 7-9:00 p.m. with Randy and Mattie Lane - this is a long established class so please call 6286383 before joining these gifted spiritual souls T.E.D. a short thought provoking video followed by discussion. Thursdays at 7 p.m. in the sanctuary led by Mark Osbourne from the Unitarian Group who use our building.

PRAYER
Our Prayer ministry continues to thrive on Tuesdays at noon.

email Prayer Requests to: unitymerced@yahoo.com

Page 2 of 8

Bookstore Ministry is now led by Mattie Lane. View our inventory at: http://www.librarything.com/home/ UnityMerced The group may meet 12 noon 2nd Sunday of the month. Lead: Mattie Lane Email: mattielane@sbcglobal.net Youth of Unity Teachers meet 12 noon 4th Sunday of the month. Lead: Sarah Anderson Email: sarahanderson1122@gmail.com Newletter Deadline for the July / August 2012 issue is Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. PDT Lead: Janet Hay Overbey Email: jhoverbey@clearwire.net Nehemiah Ministry meets most Saturdays. Their Honey Do List is at the back of the sanctuary. Please add any repairs you notice that need attention. Rain gutter replacement and painting is next and we will order YE a sign! Sanctuary roof does not leak any more. Lead: Mike Fragulia Email: fragulia@sbcglobal.net Sunday Service Support Ministry greeting, sound, scribe, and offertory collection. Jereme is learning the sound ministry but another would be welcome as would another platform person. Lead: Lamech Howard Out Reach 2012 FIL Merceds next meal will be Tuesday, May 29th. Betty P, Connie, Ida, Karen and Twila are the committee that provides this meal each quarter.

Sharing our Premises Currently AA, OA, RCA & CoDA meetings, and the Unitarians share our building. Please see our Weekly Calendar for scheduled meetings and office hours.

BRANDING
Keep in touch via facebook. WE are postponing setting up the website until Jill returns and funds have picked up a bit.

Remember we have established a Scholarship Fund to pay tuition costs for members who further their Unity Education through attending SEE Portland (end July) or SEE at the Village or online. It now stands at $3,000. Apply to the Board in writing for a scholarship. H.Q and Association News Dont forget we belong to an international organization. Keep in touch with all they do, and offer for your personal growth, through the web site www.unity.org, subscribe to Unity magazine and The Path the regular email newsletter

PROSPERITY
Income for March $5,809 Expenditure 4,315. Income so far for April $5,134 so we afrm $2,866 to meet our $8,000 a month goal. Income so far this year $19,006 Planned income to meet our need (i.e. $6,000 a month) was $24,000 so a short fall of $5,000 Expenditure so far this year $24,495 This is not a good thing people! So at the moment we have spent $5,489 more than we have received pretty close to the short fall. So our budgeting is pretty good! Luckily we have not yet committed to the Unity web site which is $300 a month after set up fee of a similar amount. Our Spiritual Leader is on unpaid leave for two months so that will help cash ow so that we should be able to put the $1200 we commit to the CD each year BOARD NEWS WE welcome our new board members! Judy Hartman and Bob Puphal have both agreed to serve again. Remaining board members are Joy Widmark, Jeremy Anderson, Laleace Mills and Kate Jackson.

STAFFING NEWS
Spiritual Leader Jill Loving is on unpaid leave, touring the state with her husband, through May and June. You can contact her Email jag2pick@yahoo or tel 209 489 7533. Judy Hartman will be the go to person while she is away and Judy will in the ofce Tuesday mornings before Prayer group at 12 noon. Our ofce manager Janine Adcock is now in the ofce Monday 9-11 a.m. Tuesday 11 a.m. 4 p.m. Wed 10 a.m.- 1 p.m. Thursday 11 a.m. 4 p.m. and Friday 10 a.m. 1 p.m.

Moving Into The Present through Contemplation: A Summary Authentic, bone chillingly honest spiritual work can be boring for many, not to mention ego-crushing; especially in the beginning of ones journey. Real spiritual work has more to do with increasing spiritual awareness than a mere acquisition of books and interesting spiritual tid-bits and topics. It is the process

Page 3 of 8

JEREME continued from page 3 of shedding illusionsof a body of time of fear!!! It should be done alone and with a clear mind. This is typically best done in a meditative state. However, if one is able to move beyond the initial ego resistance of going into a meditative state in the rst place, then perhaps one is ready to progress onto contemplationa continuous meditation. The bonus here is that contemplation may be done while simultaneously living a normal life, or at least appearing that way. Within contemplation there is always enough time to process whatever complicated past and karmic debts one needs to humbly take responsibility for. Contemplative states do not follow linear time, physical laws or mere egoic logical-conceptual thought. It is through this disillusionment of time (and other tricky illusions) that one is able to let go with divine assistance and be released from their past thus moving into the all important present moment where further ego demolition and continuous surrender may take place. Now there is no more resistance and one is easily pulled in a sense along a lesser traveled upward pathway. This path is accompanied by helpful divine cheerleaders and especially ones own higher Self whom one is increasingly becoming more and more familiar with within. One must rst nish processing the past before he/she can move upward to the present where higher spiritual awareness is found and its accompanying rewards of peace, joy and overall transcendence. An attempt at describing this state is being divine love and therefore wishing all others only the best. You and all others are now divine! More feeling and less thought. More kindness and less grievance. There is only equality and UNITY! Contemplatively yours, Jereme.

President's Message
Hello My Dear, Merced Come-Unity~ In this opportunity to reect I am brought to how I am truly taken by the seasons. Riding the cycles that the seasons provide. Meeting spring is a certain dawning. Present to the atmosphere of sprouting, blooming, nesting and birthing. It is a very fertile time. I meditate and trust that I will read the subtle cues coming from the Source of All That Is, to be response-able to meet my bloomin destiny. Taken by the Divine current, to ripening and then to harvest. I am reading a book by Gregg Braden called Fractal Time. There he outlines the cycles in universal time, as charted by the Mayan and other ancient ancestors. It suggests that we are moving into a new position within the galaxy, moving out of a season of duality and into a time of holism. I deeply resonate with this possibility. As the maps of the ancients agree, we are completing two cosmic cycles
Page 4 of 8

simultaneously. One is a 5,000 year cycle (season). The other is a 26,000 year cycle. Thus bringing us into a truly new age. The possibilities are very vast and very personal at the same time! We are the witnesses and the participants all rolled into One. As we move into the new age and season, know that we have been promised the Kingdom (I like to refer to as the Queendom) and we need not stand for anything less. As time is proving by destiny, we are the conduits that the Spirit has provided to be the Light Bearers. Each in our own small way we hold the Peace of a future. Trust, relax and be playful (joyful)! We are being brought through this transition by grace. We are cocreators cultivating and applying our conscious awareness, which then becomes the action of Being. Within time and space we are Being manifest. For me time is Mind, and space is Potential as matter. Put your loving mind (Being) into your matters and all will be well in every season (cycle).

Giving ThanksI align and tune my instrument/Being to the Source of All Things (a.k.a Love) and I appreciate the balance that the seasons provide.
Three cheers for all who are called to the Sacred!! In All Seasons! iPeace iLove iJoy!

An evening of transformational healing music, Celtic song and participatory chants from around the world.

Anton Mizerak

Laura Berryhill

synthesizers harmonica tablas vocals vocals pennywhistle Tibetan Bowls

Anton has been featured at events with Deepak Chopra, Gary Zukav, Jean Houston, Michael Beckwith and Neale Donald Walsh and at Asilomar and at Unity Village. Anton's "When Angels Dream" CDs are a favorite among healers a nd m ass age t her apis ts. Laura's unforgettable Celtic songs evoke magical times and faraway places.

Sunday May 6

6PM

Unity of Merced
305 W 26th Street Merced 209-723-3427 a love offering will be taken at the concert
more info, tour schedule and free MP3 downloads at www.shastasong.com

Page 5 of 8

Unity of Merceds 1st Annual High Tea Social

Saturday May 19, 2012 In Unity of Merceds Garden 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cost: Adults $10.00 per person (includes lunch &due by 5-14-2012) $15.00 at the door Children: $5.00 Dress Attire: Your favorite Fancy hat or you can create one.
Please R.S.V.P. by Friday May 11, 2012

(209)723-3427

305 W. 26th Street

Page 6 of 8

May 2012 Sunday Service Line-up 10:30 AM May 6th Speaker-Karen Damme Musicians-Ed Benes Platform-Ida Fragulia Sound-Mike Fragulia Flowers-Dee Dee Lead Usher-Lamech Howard BookstoreUniTots-Whitney UniKids-Mattie Lane Uniteens-Karen Damme Hospitality-Lamech & Janine May 13th Mothers Day Brunch (after service) Speaker-Amy Moffatt Music-Allan Spencer Special Music-Cheryl Locket Platform-Dan Aleman Sound-Mike Fragulia Flowers-Charlotte Mak

Lead Usher-Lamech Howard BookstoreUniTots-Whitney UniKids-Mattie Lane Uniteens-Karen Damme Hospitality-Lamech & Janine May 20th Speaker-Randy Lane Accompanist- John Albano Special Music-Lorraine Walsh Platform-Mike Fragulia SoundFlowers-Twila Stout Lead Usher-Lamech Howard BookstoreUniTots-Whitney

UniKids-Mattie Lane UniteensHospitality-Frank & Janie May 27th Speaker-Jereme Anderson Music-Allan Spencer Platform-Rich Gipson SoundFlowersLead Usher-Lamech Howard BookstoreUniTots-Whitney UniKids-Mattie Lane UniteensHospitality-Lamech & Teresa G.

June 2012 Sunday Service Line-Up 10:30 AM June 3rd Speaker-Amy Moffat Musicians-Roddy Jackson Platform-Ida Fragulia Sound-Mike Fragulia Flowers-Dee Dee Lead Usher-Lamech Howard BookstoreUniTots-Whitney UniKids-Summer Break Uniteens-Karen Damme Hospitality-Lamech & Janine June 10th Speaker-Mattie Lane Music-Allan Spencer Special Music-Cheryl Locket

Platform-Dan Aleman Sound-Mike Fragulia Flowers-Charlotte Mak Lead Usher-Lamech Howard BookstoreUniTots-Whitney UniKids-Summer Break Uniteens-Karen Damme Hospitality-Lamech & Janine June 17th Fathers Day Brunch (after service) Speaker-Randy Lane Accompanist- John Albano Special Music-Lorraine Walsh Platform-Rich Gipson Sound-Mike Fragulia Flowers-Twila Stout Lead Usher-Lamech Howard Bookstore Page 7 of 8

UniTots-Whitney UniKids-Summer Break UniteensHospitality-Frank & Janie June 24th Speaker-Rev. Nancy McNatt Music-Ed Benes & Allan Spencer Platform-Mike Fragulia SoundFlowersLead Usher-Lamech Howard BookstoreUniTots-Whitney UniKids-Summer Break UniteensHospitality-Lamech & Teresa G.

305 W. 26th Street Merced, CA 95340

May / June 2012

Sunday 10:30 AM Worship Service ---------------4:00 PM U.U. every 1st & 3rd Sunday Monday 7-8:00 AM AA Meeting ---------------9-11:00 AM Ofce Open ---------------6:30-8 PM RCA Meeting Tuesday

Weekly Calendar & Meetings Schedule

Wednesday 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Ofce Open ---------------BellyFusion 6-7:00 PM Dance Fitness 7-8:00 PM Dance Choreography ---------------also 6-7:30 PM AA Meeting (Children Welcome) Thursday 7-8:00 AM AA Meeting ---------------11:00 AM to 4:00 PM Ofce Open ---------------7:00 PM T.E.D. w/ Mark Osbourne (sanctuary) ---------------7-8:00 PM CoDA Friday 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Ofce Open ---------------7-8:00 AM AA Meeting Saturday 8-9:00 AM AA Meeting ---------------9-10:00 AM OA Meeting 7-8:00 AM AA Meeting ---------------11:00 AM to 4:00 PM Ofce Open ---------------12:00 Noon Prayer Service ---------------7-9:00 PM A Course in Miracles w/ Mattie and Randy Lane